Alastor
The Sixth Crusader and son of Shaman & The Father, Alastor was a engineering genius and a proven hand at combat and leadership. Back to index Biography Born involuntarily to a young Samantha via the mysterious Father, Alastor grew up hearing story's about the Crusaders, ones both pegging them as the greatest of heroes and the worst of villains. Eventually coming of age, Alastor was inducted into the Crusader order through an unknown series of events, a sequence that left Alastor detached and bitter towards the older Crusader beings, still living in the Sanctuary. Finding the Previous Crusaders to be arrogant and immoral, Alastor launched a plan to show them how flawed there system was and what would happen if they produced a Corrupt Crusader, largely remaining in the shadows and slowly building a power base to storm the Sanctuary. To this end, he gained allies in the form of the Paladins and Grace, a blind woman searching for redemption. However, he also came into contact with his own fair share of enemies, such as the Survivor (who was backed by the Crusaders, who believed Alastor had truly gone rouge) and G.i.p, who was still vengeful towards Alastor's mother and by extinction Alastor. Things took a turn for the worse, when Alastor came to close to discovering the true nature of the Samaritans (a race of shape shifting humans lead by the Father) causing them to open a rip between Alastors Universe and an alternate one, leading him into direct contact with Fredrickson. The ageing dark Crusader was desperately trying to find a way to gift his daughter with imortality, as she was the only one left he really cared about. This did however give Fredrick a new ally, in the form of the Nomad Tam. Things again escalated when Fredrickson put a interstellar bounty on Alastors head which, in combination with a massive smear campaign, turned Alastor and his allies into the most wanted beings in the Galaxy, with even the Paladins turning against them for personal reasons, although one of there number, Sora, disagreed with this and joined the wayward Crusader's team. Constantly on the run now, Alastor and his allies (now with the blessings of the prior Crusaders) operated out of the starship ''Esther ''and spent most of there time fleeing Dahn, a skilled bounty hunter and crime lord who was slowly uniting the entire underworld under his control. Events again came to a head when Dahns schemes ended disastrously, with an angered Fredrickson brutally murdering the would be Big-Bad, before declaring a truce with Alastor at the urgings of his daughter. However, Alastor ran into Jade, a operative who had been in action since Horizons: Genesis. Jade, who was being forced to work for the Father, warned Alastor that the Samaritans plans were just getting started. Not long after, these problems were driven into irrelevance when Alastor and his shipmates discovered an interstellar undead plague spreading like wildfire through hundreds of systems. Although there actions against this horrifying new threat resulted in a majority of civilizations dropping the bounty on there heads (and dubbing there new found heroes "Exterminators") the small group still found themselves in deep trouble, not only from the rising plague but also from the restrictive Herglic commonwealth (heavily damaged by the plague) and from Fredricksons vengeful daughter Keto who believed Alastor had murdered her father (although it was really a shape-shifted Samaritan). Eventually, Alastor convinced Keto of his innocence allowing him to concentrate on finding a solution to the undead plague. Eventually tracing it back to a lifeless desert planet, once home to an advanced sentient near-human species. Finding the only survivor left, Alastor and the other Exterminators discovered that G.i.p (disguised as a simple scientist) had released a bio-weapon developed thousands of years earlier by The Hunger Lord. Although disturbed by this connection Alstor instead focused on using this information to find a solution to the plague. Reverse engineering the virus, Alastor (with help from several interstellar powers) managed to create a beacon that sent out a galactic single, drawing the plague out of its victims (sadly killing them in the process) into an airborne form and to a signal abandoned planet, which they would then destroy. However, the Exterminators are betrayed by an unknown source and the plague is instead drawn to a massive interstellar cannon, pointed directly at Serd. Realizing this had been orchestrated by the Father in an attempt to destroy the Crusader Limbo. Realizing that the effort to stop this would kill even the nearly immortal Tam, Grace sacrificed herself to stop the attack, finally gaining her much coveted redemption. Alastor, saddened at the death of his friend, immediately confronted the Father. reviled to be Sora. Sora, in all truth, had been killed years earlier, before he had joined Alastor, taking his identity and masquerading as the deceased Paladin. After a brief (relatively speaking) chase, Alastor confronted the Father a final time (Alastor's briefly resurrected mother defeated the other Samaritans). Initially reluctant to kill his Father, due to the fact his power play was causing more good than harm, Alastor relinquishes and decapitates the shape snifter once he realizes he did not want to (and never had) be a Crusader, allowing Jade to take on the roll, Alastor and Tam leaving for parts currently unknown. A few years later Alastor would apparently sacrifice himself to save the entire Galaxy from The Cube, proving once and for all he had become a hero. Odds & Ends Half Samaritan and half Eternal, Alastor nonetheless did not display any of the abilities attributed to the shape shifting species. A pale skinned male slightly over six feet, Alastor sported the same piercing blue eyes as his mother and long grayish white hair worn in A pony tail, despite his youth. With A hard set face marked with more than A few scars, Alastor was one of the few Crusaders who preferred to let his facial hair grow out, often sporting stubble or occasionally full blown beard. Although he did not share his mothers outstanding physical skills, Alastor could hold his own: In terms of toughness, Alastor was able to jump from the top of one skyscraper, through A window several stories down on another skyscraper, and come away with nothing beyond superficial cuts and bruises. In terms of strength, Alastor could leave A dent in A dursteel wall, although he was likely augmenting himself. In terms of confirmed augmented strength, Alastor could actually decapitate an average Human male with A single blow. In terms of speed, Alastor was less accomplished, although he was fast enough to take part in high speed duels with the greatest warriors of the age, never being speed-blitzed. All in all, Alastor sported the physical attributes you would expect from A intergalactic mercenary: absolutely ridiculous. By far Alastors greatest strength was with his mechanical genius. Most prominently, Alastor perfected the perpetual motion machine, allowing him and the other Exterminators literally endless supplies and replications of what they needed. This engineering feat was stored aboard the Esther, A cross between A space station and smaller, medium class ship. It was 73 meters long and across, storing the many supplies, weapons, artifacts and other projects kept by the Exterminators. Although the ship itself was one of the most advanced in the Universe, it was it's cargo that was most important: unlike previous Crusaders, Alastor and his allies were joined by A massive squad of advanced combat droids. Created and designed by Alastor himself, there artificial soldiers served as A small army that made the Crusaders an even more viable fighting force. The Esther was also equipped with capital ship grade weaponry, nearly impenetrable energy shields, advanced laboratories, A full hanger bay, etc. In terms of personal equipment, Alastor had A wide variety of tools at his fingertips. Primarily, of curse, was his Phaseblade: although he originally wielded A blue bladed weapon, this was eventually seized by Fredrickson, leading to Alastor replacing it: his second Phaseblade did however closely resemble the first one, with A long, smooth hilt marked by grooves clean edges. The weapon produced A silver blade and was kept in A back scabbard. Alastor wielded both A kinetic and energy pistol, as well as A number of throwing knifes and collapsible blades. On A more advanced note, Alastor preferred power gauntlets over archaic energy creation, had A short range teleport always on his person, as well as A holoprojecter and cloaking device. Finally, Alastor often carried grenades (As well as more powerful explosives) and custom built Epsilon model power armor. Although, as previously mentioned, he preferred the use of power gauntlets to natural energy creation/absorption/manipulation, Alastor could still use this ability with skill, stunning an entire squad at once, outright killing single targets and even stopping Fredricksons lethal strikes, albeit for A very short time. Telekinesis was A powerful weapon in Alastor's arsenal, his blasts tearing apart everything in A small radius, his subtle pulls manipulating wiring meters away and his pushes staggering even the most staunch of contenders. The epitome of his power in this regard was the creation of waves, which Alastor could use to rip over seven dozen decomposing plague victims at once. As with all Crusaders and other such "sorcerers", Alastor often augmented himself physically, allowing him to display much greater speed, strength and endurance than would otherwise be possible. Alastor was not very knowledgeable about telepathic abilities, but he did (Due to his attempts at storming the Paradise Limbo) have A good grasp on the more archaic and mysterious aspects of the supernatural, which was furthered by his battles against Fredrickson, The Herglics and the Plague. All things considered, Alastor was A reasonably competent wielder of the arcane, but preferred the use of more practical and scientific methods for his goals. Although he, quite honestly, never wanted to be A Crusader in the first place and would have been content to remain tinkering with machinery and developing new technology, Alastor eventually proved himself to be on par with his peers among the Order. In particular, Alastor showed great proficiency as A martial artist. As with all Crusaders, Alastor's fighting style was A hybrid between preexisting fighting forms from many different cultures as well as his own moves. His extremely precise and advanced swordplay described as "Dual wielding with one hand", Alastor preferred to reserve his Phaseblade only for combat against other duelists, using other means and weapons in more standard battlefield engagements (Although he certainly would not hesitate when it was required). Right from the beginning, Alastor proved himself to be one of the best duelists produced by the Crusaders, out maneuvering and defeating the Survivor, the Paladins best warriors, Dahn and his best warriors, the two mercenaries trained by Jade, Jade herself, Grace, Tam, the Herglic's deadliest enforcers, and many more. Temporarily invading the Paradise Limbo early in his career, Alastor engaged Fredrick in A fast paced battle in A forest terrain: Both warriors chose not to take advantage of the reality warping powers available to them, Alastor spent most of the fight on the run, but he still held his own (And it was years before he reached his prime). Generally, it was agreed that the five best duelists of the Horizons: Shattered era were Keto, Fredrickson, the Father and G.i.p, with Alastor rounding them out. He (barely) managed to out-spar Keto and her father (separately of course), although the latter constantly just powered through Alastor with his supernatural abilities. Once his cover as Sora was blown, The Father and Alastor faced off in A devastating duel aboard the Esther, with Alastor actually disarming his/the Father and forcing him to flee. This is quite impressive, as Alastors own mother (A masterful duelist in her own right, if yes so) was generally completely outclassed by the Father with the blade (Although Alastor did claim his victory was due to the Father being less skilled with the phasestaff he wielded as Sora then more standard weaponry). Ultimately the only fellow top tier who consistently beat Alastor was G.i.p, and this was mostly due to the latter's sheer brutality. Focused on blade to blade combat and honed by years of experience, Alastor challenged his fellow Crusaders as A warrior.